


Bucky Barnes and the Dreadful Warning

by beradan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, loosely inspired by actual events, not really compliant with anything after CA:TWS, the time-honored tradition of lying to small children, very loosely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 08:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beradan/pseuds/beradan
Summary: Bucky crouches down so he can look the kid in the eye. “Well, you see, when I was your age I liked to play near the train tracks.”Mason, apparently, has heard this sort of Dreadful Warning story before and looks unimpressed.





	Bucky Barnes and the Dreadful Warning

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet brought to you by the [New York Times Archives](https://twitter.com/NYTArchives/status/1167474595047378945) and a lot of cold medicine.

**Monday, August 31, 1925. Boy at Play Ties Up Coney Island Trains; Rolls Hoop on Rails and Causes Short Circuit…**

* * *

_"Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently delayed due to an obstruction on the tracks. Crews are working on it and the delay should not be longer than thirty minutes. We appreciate your patience at this time."_

Several people in the car groan. The small boy next to Bucky (somewhere in the vicinity of seven-ish) has been engrossed in something on his mother's phone that goes _bloop_ for the last six stops, but now he looks up and notices Bucky.

Well, he notices Bucky's left arm.

_Here we go again, _Bucky thinks.

"Scuse me, mister," says the kid, politely but insistently, “what happened to your arm?”

“Mason!” his mother says, horrified, and then, “I’m so sorry, he knows better.” 

Bucky crouches down so he can look the kid in the eye. “Well, you see, when I was your age I liked to play near the train tracks.” 

Mason, apparently, has heard this sort of Dreadful Warning story before and looks unimpressed. “Did you get hit by a train?” 

Bucky reconsiders his strategy. 

“No, but one time I dropped something on the tracks and stopped the train, just like it’s stopped now. The train decided I was its worst enemy, but my mother wouldn’t let me play near the tracks after that, so the train had to wait for _twenty years_ to get me back for it.” 

“And then you got hit by a train?” 

“No, the train snuck into my room one night and when I woke up, _poof! _My arm was all metal.” 

Mason scowls suspiciously, like he knows Bucky's lying through his teeth and just can't prove it. Bucky goes back to his book.

When the train finally lurches into the next stop, Bucky steps onto the platform only to hear Mason shouting behind him. “Trains don’t fit through doors! You’re just making this up.”

Bucky turns around. “See, that’s what I thought, too,” he says. He raises his left hand and wiggles the metal fingers at Mason. “And just look where that got me.”

**Author's Note:**

> stop by [my tumblr](http://www.librarian-amy.tumblr.com) for a whole lot of Captain America and Cap-adjacent characters, a moderate amount of historical trivia, a side of things you, too, can regret learning, and the occasional plotbunny


End file.
